Wednesday, August 9, 2006

Startup Looks For Exit On eBay

A little known, very early stage Pasadena-based startup, Yoosi.com, has turned to the internet marketplace eBay to try to raise money for the firm's founding team, in the newest twist in the quest by Web 2.0 companies and projects for attention. Yoosi.com provides a web site that allows users to customize what information they see, mostly around RSS feeds and news. The firm compares itself to Pageflakes and Netvibes, two other early stage Web 2.0 startups. Yoosi.com was put up for sale on eBay August 1st, and as of August 8th had a high bid of $2501.62 for the auction, which ends on August 11th. According to Jake Lackey, the company's CEO and Founder, the firm turned to eBay because they felt that eBay was a great way to attract potential buyers and to gain publicity for the Yoosi website. Lackey also told socalTECH that as a result of the eBay listing, the team has had calls and emails inquiring about other projects, job offers, and more.